Enerlink, a Chilean startup, successfully raised a funding round of USD$3.6 million after completing due diligence.
With this achievement, the company plans to expand into the Mexican market, as well as continue its operations in Peru and Colombia.
The startup received funds from Corfo and angel investors, and then sought to raise an investment of USD$2 million in a pre-Series A round, in which VX Ventures, an entity associated with the Argentine oil company Vista, contributed USD$1 million.
Their main competitors include Dhemax (acquired by Copec), Movia, and Voltex. As for smart metering, they acknowledge that the competition is abroad.
What Does Enerlink Do?
The startup began by offering advisory services to energy-consuming companies with the intention of understanding the real needs and challenges of their potential clients.
Their long-term goal was to become a scalable technology company with a greater impact.
One of their first clients was Tur Bus, whom Enerlink advised on their electric bill and then implemented a smart metering service.
They discovered that energy consumption doubled due to the charging of electric buses at inappropriate times, leading to the birth of a new business line: electromobility.
Enerlink developed a system to optimize the charging of electric vehicles, and currently, this area is the fastest-growing.
According to their projections, at least 200 million chargers for electric vehicles must be installed worldwide in the next decade, and these chargers must be smart and connected to the electrical system.
Currently, Enerlink manages the charging of more than 600 electric buses for clients like Subus, Transmilenio, RED, and Colbún. They charge a monthly fee based on the number of chargers connected to their platform. Additionally, they offer software that allows fleet operators to control and configure their devices in real-time.
The Beginning of the Startup
Sebastián Luque first became involved in the electric sector when he worked at the renewable energy company Mainstream after graduating as a civil engineer from the Catholic University in 2010.
At that time, Mainstream had only five employees, but when he left the company in 2014, it already had over 50 employees.
That same year, he went to study a master’s in engineering and management at MIT, and later worked at Alta Energy, an energy sector company in San Francisco, which later went bankrupt.
During his time at Alta Energy, he received a call from a university friend who was part of the board of Abrantes, a mushroom producer. This friend was seeking advice on energy management in the company.
This consulting experience was a turning point for Sebastián, as he had always had the desire to start a business. While in the United States, he began to establish Enerlink.
Soon, he partnered with two individuals, José Ignacio Dusaillant and Alberto Cárdenas, who shared his vision.
